


Almost A Fresh Start

by KatyaMorrigan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy Friendship, Hermione considering her feelings, Homework, Mixed feelings, Mutual Support, Other, Studying, potential beginning for something, start of something - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatyaMorrigan/pseuds/KatyaMorrigan
Summary: Hermione goes to the Astronomy Tower whenever she can't sleep. One night, when she goes up there, Malfoy is there too. Turns out they are working on the same Transfiguration essay, and that Malfoy is a lot nicer to be around when there is nobody else there. Maybe it's the start of a new friendship between them.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Kudos: 32





	Almost A Fresh Start

**Author's Note:**

> Day 8 of my NaNoWriMo writing challenge this year - one oneshot a day, every day for the whole of November. I'm following the SOFTober 2020 prompts by @wafflesandkruge on Instagram to give me some fluffy starting points for the coming month of fics.  
> The prompt for today was "moonlight".  
> I hope you enjoy!

When she couldn’t sleep, Hermione liked to go to the Astronomy Tower. She was certain it wasn’t an unusual thing to do; judging by the debris that was left on the battlements of the castle, a variety of different students used the outdoor space for a myriad of reasons. Hermione’s reason was perhaps the most savoury – she liked to do her homework. There was a different kind of focus, alone in the dark with nothing but the glow of her wand and a new essay to complete. Yes, it was predictable of her, but often a period of intense focus on schoolwork was enough to then allow her to relax when she made her way back down to the dormitory however many hours later.

The castle itself was beautiful at night anyway – the faint outlines of the ghosts as they wandered the corridors, the dim embers of the wall sconces burnt down through the evening, and the general aura of the building was only enhanced by the darkness.

As expected in the lead-up to exams, Hermione woke in the middle of the night quite suddenly. She may well have been disturbed by a dream, but regardless of the reason, her mind could not return to rest. After another twenty minutes of trying to get comfortable, she gave up and went to find her dressing gown and Transfiguration essay.

Hermione slipped easily from the dormitory – all the other girls were heavy sleepers – and cast a lazy Disillusionment charm over herself just for extra safety. She had not once been caught on her night time trips to the Astrology Tower, and she was quite proud of that fact. Knowing so much about magic was an asset when it came to breaking the rules like this.

The corridors were mercifully empty, and there was no need to worry about dodging Filch or Mrs Norris, or any other wandering students. Hermione walked leisurely through the school, waiting for the staircases to swing her way, and made it to the spiral stairs leading up to the top of the Tower. She listened carefully for any sign of approach before starting to walk up, as her footsteps clicked loudly on the stone slabs.

Hermione stepped onto the battlements and looked up at the star-filled sky. It was a navy-blue night, not entirely dark, for the almost full moon and the piercing constellations cast an astonishing amount of light over her. She turned off her wand with a muttered “Nox”, and looked for a place to sit. Around the railings she went, trying to find the best spot to make use of the bright night, until Hermione had turned a full circle and was looking back towards the exit. And there she saw Malfoy.

It was so sudden that she almost jumped, but he was there, sat with his back against the entrance to the stairs, completely obscured from view until you turned to leave. His hair was as white as snow under the moonlight, and Hermione was surprised she hadn’t noticed the glow sooner.

He had seen her, of course, and was offering a wary smile.

“I won’t tell if you don’t,” he said, turning back to the book in his hands.

There was little else to say: Hermione knew as well as anyone that she was breaking the rules being out at this hour, and she certainly wasn’t going to cast herself as a hypocrite by getting Malfoy in trouble for the same.

She let out an impatient sigh and sat down against the railings a good ten feet away from Malfoy. That way he was still within her sightline, but she wouldn’t be forced to make awkward eye contact with him. Hermione pulled her Transfiguration essay and a short stack of textbooks from her dressing gown pockets, as well as a quill and a pot of ink. That was the joy of Undetectable Extension Charms: the opportunity to pretend you were Mary Poppins whenever the occasion presented itself.

Hermione set down her tools and pulled out her wand again, casting her trademark blue flames in a small puddle beside her. It threw a slightly eerie blue light over her work, but it was more subtle and less glaring than using Lumos for the rest of the night. She reread what she had already written the day before, correcting her handwriting in places, before continuing where she had previously left. There was little else she needed to research for the essay, but Hermione kept her three textbooks open to the relevant pages so that she could make direct reference to the various studies and ensure she was being as accurate as possible. Her hand was already getting cold from being out of the comfort of the dormitory, and she had to keep adjusting her grip on her quill to avoid smudging her words.

She looked up to think, sighing up at the sky, and found her eye drawn to Malfoy again. He was almost luminous in the dark – pale skin, silvery hair – and he was reading from his book without a wand or pile of flames to aid him. There was something Veela-like about the way he shone under the moon. It was unnerving, and Hermione was struggling now to focus on her work again.

Shaking her head to herself, Hermione readjusted her quill in her hands and began writing again. Only the pressure she used was too sharp, and the nib of her quill split messily, spewing ink over her fingers and the edge of the parchment. She gave a cry of annoyance and grabbed her wand, casting Scourgify to try and clean up some of the mess. It was too late for her quill though – it had burst beyond repair. Hermione put her now clean hand back into her dressing gown pocket, but there was no spare quill.

“Dammit,” she muttered under her breath, trying to think through the spells she knew and wondering if any of them would serve to give her a writing utensil. She may be able to Transfigure this broken quill into a working one, she supposed…

“I brought mine up, if you need another one,” Malfoy said. Hermione looked up and saw his hand outstretched, offering up his quill.

“I thought you were reading,” she said. It sounded heavily accusatory, but Hermione was never good at hiding her suspicions towards Malfoy.

“I am,” he replied. “I need to do McGonagall’s essay for Tuesday, and I can’t start without reading the passages she set last week.”

“We were meant to do those for the lesson.”

“I know.” He gave her an ironic eyebrow raise and turned back to the book. “If you don’t want my quill, that’s fine. You just have to say.”

“No, please.” Hermione sighed. “Can I borrow it?”

Malfoy nodded and moved over to her, dropping the quill between them and shifting back into his sitting position. Hermione picked it up and turned it over in her hand. Of course Malfoy owned a phoenix-feather quill, dyed a brilliant shimmering white with silver curlicues remaining on the vane despite the bleaching. The nib was a heavy silver metal as well, and Hermione watched it tipping over her finger with the weight of its own head as she balanced it.

It made an excellent writing tool, though. Her ink flowed through it so smoothly, and the heavy nib made writing far easier with minimal pressure. Hermione’s hand didn’t ache as much as it normally did when she had to write for this long.

Hermione had just reached her second foot of parchment when she heard Malfoy sigh from the corner. She looked up briefly before turning back to the paper. She consulted the textbook, and went to continue her sentence when there was another sigh.

“Okay over there?” she asked impatiently.

“If I said I didn’t understand chapter eighteen, you would laugh at me, wouldn’t you?”

He didn’t look up from the page, but his brow was furrowed and his hair had floated over his forehead to obscure his eyes from Hermione’s gaze.

“It depends on whether you were trying to understand it in the first place. And on whether this is you indirectly asking me to help you.”

“Would you say no if I directly asked you to help me understand chapter eighteen?”

Hermione thought about it. He was being genuine, it seemed – and that was so unlike the Malfoy she knew. Was that a good sign, or an even worse one? Hermione didn’t know. He had offered her his own quill with little to no reason to – perhaps to put him in her good books when he now asked for help – but it would be churlish to make so many assumptions based on the various exchanges they had had already tonight. Making too many assumptions really hadn’t helped Harry in the past.

“I’ll go through the chapter with you, but I’m not about to help you with the essay.”

“I can write the essay myself. I just need to make sure I know what I’m talking about when I do get to it. Bring your fire over here.”

Hermione scooped up her handful of blue flames and made her way over to the wall Malfoy was leaning against. She deposited the fire between them as she sat down, and leaned a little closer to see what page he was on.

It was not uncomfortable going through the textbook with Malfoy, and it certainly assuaged Hermione’s fears that he had been trying to mock her in some way. He was diligent in listening to her explanations, never interrupting while she was speaking, and asking questions only to clarify or extend what she was talking about. They made their way through the first few pages relatively quickly, and Hermione had to go back to her own pile of books to retrieve Malfoy’s quill so that he could jot down notes on his own parchment.

“McGonagall never spends this long actually going through the theory behind topics like this,” he exclaimed. “I think she assumes we all absorb this as quickly as you do and can move along as quickly as she likes.”

“She does have a tendency to overestimate our abilities,” Hermione admitted.

“I don’t think I would have been able to even start the essay without you going through this with me, Granger.” He looked at her, and Hermione was struck by the blue glow of the flames reflected in his eyes. They looked warmer, less intense. “Thank you.”

She gave a brief smile before looking back at the book.

“You’re welcome. Do you need any more help from me?”

“I think I can manage from now on. Can I ask questions if they come up while I’m writing?”

“Sure. Try not to disturb me while I’m doing the essay myself, though. I’ll end up doubting my argument otherwise.”

Hermione got up and went back to her essay.

“Why would I make you doubt your argument?”

“Because I start to think about all the things I haven’t covered yet, and worry that I’ve missed something crucial.”

“Granger, your essay is already two feet long and we only needed one and a half feet,” Malfoy said, his eyebrow raised. “I don’t think it’s going to matter.”

“I still don’t need to be put off on my writing flow.”

“I understand.”

Hermione looked up at him again as he pulled a second quill from his robes and started to write. Did he really understand?

It was a pleasant silence that followed, regardless. The noise of quills scratching across parchment melted into the stillness of the night, and Hermione found herself relaxing again. It wasn’t so bad being up here with Malfoy. He made a diligent study partner, less likely to distract her than Ron or Ginny, and the questions he had raised while reading through the textbook actually made Hermione think quite hard about the material they were studying. Malfoy was smart, no question about it, and he was challenging the things she was certain she knew.

He was quiet the whole time he wrote, focused purely on the quill and parchment as the moonlight shone down on him. Hermione still glanced up from time to time, looking at his white hair glowing and the pensive expression on his face. She finished her essay a little later than she had thought she might, and the sky was starting to take on the greyish hue that it did in the early hours before sunrise.

“I’m going back to get some sleep now,” she announced as she packed away her books and papers. “Thank you for letting me borrow your quill. It’s a really nice one.”

“There are few benefits to being a Malfoy. But nice stationary is one of them.” Malfoy gave her a lazy smile, and Hermione found herself smiling back. “Thank you for helping me get through this essay.”

They looked at each other, and Hermione felt something. She was unsure what, but there was something about this interaction, with none of the stakes involved that usually plagued her interactions with him during the day, that made it more than bearable. She liked talking to him.

“I’d be happy to help you with other homework if you ever needed it,” she found herself saying. And Malfoy smiled fully.

“I’d like that.” His reply was soft, and Hermione felt that strange something again.

“Goodnight, Malfoy.”

“Goodnight, Granger. Sleep well.”

Hermione made her way back to the dormitory less carefully than she would have liked. Twice she rounded a corner too close to the wall and nearly toppled a suit of armour, and once a ghost passed through her with a splutter and a cough. Fortunately the Disillusionment Charm was enough, and she made it back to her bed in one piece.

When she woke up the next day, Hermione reread the essay she had written. The handwriting was sloppier, as it usually was when written during the night, but it was filled with new ideas prompted by her discussion with Malfoy. It was quite possibly the best she had ever written.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, I messed up my own writing challenge and will have to make up for lost time. Turns out posting every single day is hard work. The writing? Less difficult, it turns out, than completing an entire story and having it neatly finished before the end of every day. I'm adjusting my commitment to instead being one story every other day, or every few days. Because I can do the >1,667 words every day. Just... It's hard work, man. There will be 30 fics, they may well just not be every single day in November. I feel like that's fair.  
> ANYWAY.  
> I hope you liked this one, it was fun going back to writing things about my first OTP and the first ship I ever wrote about. If you're here for the Dramione stuff, go check out my Wattpad. It's purely Dramione fanfics and they're pretty good, if I do say so myself. 
> 
> Tomorrow/today's prompt is "smile", and will be a Six of Crows Kanej fic.


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